Turn 2-Dark Eldar
The haemonculus smiled as three, large, scorpion-like metal monstrosities floated out of the dark portal at his feet. The talos floated soundlessly over the oil tanks and ruins separating them from the seemingly-invulnerable chaos rhino. The difficult terrain had no effect on the hovering machines. The talos wildly fired their stingers, having no effect on the rhinos but managing to kill one veteran on the nearby rooftop.
Meanwhile the Fiends of Slaneesh found themselves face to face with a fresh squad of Dark Eldar warriors, squad purple, who fire everything they have into the sweeping advance of the demons, killing two of the five. The fiends respond by killing 3 in hand to hand. This squad too failed its leadership test and fled clear off the board edge with the demons close behind.
Dark lance fire stabbed out once more from the ruins in the center of the battlefield, succeeding in immobilizing the nearest rhino.
Behind the bunker the tangle of sensuous daemonic flesh and drug-crazed archon continued. This time Mistress Xandra pierced their daemonic aura and killed three of the daemonettes attacking her, but they refuse break.
The three Talos swooped down upon the nearest rhino and rocked the vehicle with their claws and stingers, stunning the occupants. The extra armor on the chaos vehicles meant they would only not be able to fire next turn.
The talos move in for the kill
Turn 3- Slaneesh
The shaken rhino high-tailed it away from the trio of talos toward the building with the last two Dark Eldar warrior squads, and hence dark lances, in the central ruins. The fiends of slaneesh returned from their pursuit and also headed toward the central ruins.
The hatch on the immobilized rhino popped open and the slaneesh marines inside fired their doom siren and flamer, but the nearby talos were unaffected.
The two remaining Dark Eldar squads in the ruins were training their lances on the approaching rhino when the air around them crackled with dark energy and hairs on their neck stood straight up. Right in front of the building five horrific steeds of slaneesh with daemonette riders appeared. Once more the demons had deviated off the approaching rhino directly toward the target building! The daemonic steeds leapt into the building, one was impaled on a warrior's bayonet, but then they were in the ruins exacting a horrible toll, killing 5 warriors in return. Once again the Dark Eldar broke (are you seeing a pattern here?) and were run down by the steeds who swept into the last remaining DE warrior squad.
The battle with the Archon would continue for another turn as only a single daemonette was felled and the archon's shadowfield saved her against two more wounds.
Finally, with a roar, the immobilized chaos rhino got its engine running again! (This is something rhinos are now capable of as detailed in the expanded vehicle rules from White Dwarf).
The unstoppable rhinos equipped with warp amps
Turn 3- Dark Eldar
The turn began with the arrival of the wyches on their raider. Without many "soft" targets on the board, they moved into position to assault the nearest rhino. The three talos also moved up to target the rhinos while the haemonculus zoomed forward on his skyboard to deal with the veterans on the bunker.
The last DE warrior squad desperately fired everything they had at the sweeping advance of the slaneesh steeds and were rewarded with the annihilation of the four remaining cavalry. The talos wild fired their stingers to no effect. The wyches fired two blasters and the raider its disintegrator, but the seemingly invulnerable chaos rhino escaped harm again! Lastly, the haemonculus fired his destructor, accounting for 2 chaos veterans on the bunker walls, before he assaulted them and fought to a stalemate.
Two talos and the wyches assaulted the lead rhino, while the remaining talos assaulted the second rhino. If the lead rhino could be cracked, the chaos marine passengers would die as they tried to escape the burning wreckage because all the hatches were "blocked" by DE attackers (another new vehicle rule from WD). But alas, it was not to be, the rhino remained unharmed…again.
The third talos was more successful, flipping the other rhino over with its claw and spilling its Chaos marine passengers. One was crushed beneath the rolling tank.
The archon finally dispatched the last daemonette, but a single noise marine kept her locked in combat.
The wych "chorus line" makes its debut...
and joins the Talos in surrounding the chaos rhino, all to no avail.
Turn 4- Slaneesh
Finally, the slaneesh chaos lord and his retinue of five chaos terminators arrived, deep striking into the occupied Dark Eldar building.
The surrounded rhino drove straight through the wyches blocking its path and succeeded in tank shocking them (thanks to the accursed warp amp atop the vehicle). Then, through combined fire of the embarked chaos unit and the unit now on foot, the wyches and their raider were utterly destroyed.
The Lord and his terminator retinue strafed the ruins with bolter fire and engulfed the place with flames, killing all but two of the Warrior squad within, who miraculously did not break.
The last unit of demons, another unit of 6 daemonettes, were summoned and deviated toward the two rearmost talos. The template's final position was so close to the talos that a daemonette was lost in the summoning. The fickle Keeper of Secrets did not make an appearance this battle, leaving his/her/its work to its minions.
The daemonettes assaulted one talos and the fiends of slaneesh assaulted a second talos in an attempt to keep the machines occupied with their invulnerable saves and away from the chaos marines. In the ensuing hand to hand, the talos killed a few demons, but not enough to break either unit.
Meanwhile, the battles between the Archon and the last remaining noise marine and the veterans and haemonculus both ended in stalemates, with neither side inflicting casualties or breaking.
Turn 4 - Dark Eldar
The winner was clear, but the Dark Eldar were going out fighting. The unengaged talos moved into position to assault the chaos marines on foot.
The unengaged talos' wildfire was ineffective, but the remaining warriors in the ruins managed to take out a deep-striking chaos terminator with a large-template shredder shot.
Theunengaged talos, finally in a position to crunch through some marine armor, assaulted the chaos marine squad but rolled poorly for # of attacks and only killed a single marine. The two talos tied up with demons each took a wound and killed three demons in return, still not enough to break the creatures' wills.
The haemonculus on the bunker, desperate to finish off the chaos veterans with his scissorhands, pushed his drugs too hard. His head exploded like a rotten melon hit by a bolter shell. The chaos veterans laughed and licked the brains from their lips.
Finally the archon cut down the last remaining noise marine and swept onto the bunker with the veterans. With that, the game ended.
Final score: Chaos 1,234 Dark Eldar 606
Chaos Conclusion
Strong Point Attack was a good change of pace as my chaos rarely defend. Then again, the best defense is a good offense, and that was what my army concentrated on. Jim’s horrible shooting in the bottom of the first turn allowed me to get the rhinos in range for what they do best (Daemon summoning and psychological warfare) which were also helped by Jim’s poor rolling. With four daemon units, my army leaves little to chance. Every Daemon unit seems to deviate exactly where I want which is explained by the fact that they are usually surrounded by enemies.
Once the tide had turned to chaos in this game, the battle was told. The two thing that kept Jim at bay was the fact that I was able to tie up his lord with six daemonettes (with a little luck) and outrun his Talos with my rhinos (no luck required). --Wilson
Dark Eldar Conclusion
Damn that Slaneesh army. Wilson's army is one of the, if not THE, deadliest armies in the club. The combination of warp-amped rhinos, demons with tons of attacks, noise marines and big units of chaos marines usually means your units are going to be doing a lot of running. That's why it is essential to silence those accursed warp amps early on. With eight dark lances and ten blasters you think I could have managed it.
This is the second time I've played Wilson's army with my Dark Eldar and both times I have had no luck whatsoever at taking out those damn rhinos. My DE are designed to provide a huge amount of accurate firepower to crack transports then deliver the goods to mop up (ie 3 talos, archon, wyches) and if I can't hit or damage a couple of rhinos, my plan is in the toilet from the word go.
Wilson is a very good player and if the dice are going against you when you play him you're going to be out of luck. The one area that I always seem to have incredible luck in when I play Will is with my archon. In the Arena of Deth character megabattle, my archon took out his Abbadon in a single round. In this game I made 9 shadowfield saves in a single turn and probably close to 20 in total without a single failure! Now, if only I could shoot… --Jim